We Are Marshall is a 2006 American drama film directed by McG about the aftermath of the 1970 plane crash that killed nearly all of the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team; the rebuilding of the program; and the healing that the community undergoes. It stars Matthew McConaughey as head coach Jack Lengyel, Matthew Fox as assistant coach William "Red" Dawson, David Strathairn as University President Donald Dedmon and Robert Patrick as ill-fated Marshall head coach Rick Tolley. Georgia governor George "Sonny" Perdue has a cameo role as an East Carolina University football coach.[1] The movie is rated PG. The movie was scored by Christophe Beck and written by Jamie Linden. Dr. Keith Spears was the Marshall University consultant.
On the evening of November 14, 1970, Southern Airways Flight 932, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 which Huntington, West Virginia's Marshall University chartered to transport the Thundering Herd football team to Greenville, North Carolina via Stallings Field in Kinston, North Carolina and back to Huntington, clipped trees on a ridge just one mile short of the runway at Tri-State Airport in Ceredo, West Virginia and crashed into a gully. The team was returning from their game against the East Carolina University Pirates — a 17–14 loss. There were no survivors. In all, 75 people lost their lives. The dead included the 37 players; head coach Rick Tolley and five members of his coaching staff; Charles E. Kautz, Marshall's athletics director; team trainer Jim Schroer and his assistant, Donald Tackett; 22 boosters; and five crew members.
In the wake of the tragedy, President Donald Dedmon leans towards indefinitely suspending the football program, but he is ultimately persuaded to reconsider by the pleas of the Marshall students and Huntington residents, and especially the few football players who didn't make the flight. Dedmon hires a young new head coach Jack Lengyel, who with the help of Red Dawson, manages to rebuild the team in a relatively short time. They are aided by the NCAA's waiver of a rule prohibiting freshmen from playing varsity football (a rule which had been abolished in 1968 for all sports except for football and basketball, and would be permanently abolished for those sports in 1972). The new team is composed mostly of the 18 returning players (three varsity, 15 sophomores) and walk-on athletes from other Marshall sports programs. Due to their lack of experience, the "Young Thundering Herd" ends up losing their first game, 29-6 to the Morehead State Eagles. The Herd's first post-crash victory is a heart-stopping 15–13 home win against Xavier University in the first home game of the season.
After the game, Annie Cantrell (played by Kate Mara) narrates the aftermath:
"The following week, Marshall lost to the Miami Redskins, now Miami RedHawks 66 to 6. They would win only one more game in 1971. Jack Lengyel resigned as head coach in 1974 with a record of 9–33. He would later become athletic director at the Naval Academy, where he was later inducted into the athletic Hall of Fame. Donald Dedmon accepted the presidency at Radford University where he would remain until he retired in 1994. Gene Morehouse's son Keith followed in his father's footsteps and became a broadcaster for Marshall football where he remains today. Reggie Oliver started every game for the Thundering Herd until he graduated. He later returned to Marshall as an assistant coach and now lives in Ohio. After graduation, Nate Ruffin moved away from Huntington, got married and started a family. In 2001, after an illness, Nate died at his home in Virginia. He would return to Huntington one last time for a reunion with his old teammates. Red Dawson left the team at the end of the year. He never returned to football."
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